Home Energy Savings

Home Energy Savings programs

Announcement

GPCC is increasingly focused on outreach and initiatives related to environmental sustainability.

We work in partnership with several organizations offering programs that help Garfield Park residents save on their energy bills and increase our climate resiliency as a community. This page shares more information about energy-saving programs available to Chicago and Illinois renters and homeowners. This support will help residents reduce costs and stay in their current homes, reducing displacement, and building community stability.

Many of our neighbors have benefited from energy-saving resources. One West Garfield Park homeowner who recently installed solar panels on their single-family home, providing them with both the financial and environmental benefits of solar energy. Ms. Blair, pictured to the right, qualified for new, more energy-efficient furnace for their home.

For renters and homeowners interested in learning more about solar energy, check out our information about the Illinois Solar for All Program.

Citizens Utility Board

Since 1984, CUB has been working for lower rates and better service from the state’s investor-owned electric, gas, and telephone companies. CUB has information on current, alternative, and cost-saving options to your utilities, including Gas, Electric, Phone, Internet, Cable, and Water. CUB works to help citizens understand their utility responsibility, such as how to understand your bills, how to choose another supplier of a particular utility, and how to get help paying your utility bills.

CUB Utility Resources

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps keep families safe and healthy through initiatives that assist families with energy costs. They provide federally funded assistance in managing costs associated with:

Home energy bills
Energy crises
Weatherization and energy-related minor home repairs

LIHEAP can help you stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer through programs that reduce the risk of health and safety problems that arise from unsafe heating and cooling practices. Illinois residents with a household income that does not exceed an amount determined annually by the Department of Commerce are eligible.

Learn More About LIHEAP

Elevate Energy

Elevate Energy seeks to create a world in which everyone has clean and affordable heat, power, and water in their homes and communities — no matter who they are or where they live. Making the benefits and services of the clean energy economy accessible to everyone is how Elevate fights climate change while supporting equity.

Elevate Energy offers several programs for homeowners, including:

Bill Saving Programs

Whether you rent or own your home, smart electricity options can help you save money on your electricity bill. Elevate Energy works with Illinois utilities Ameren Illinois and ComEd to administer their electricity options. While saving money, these programs give participants monthly savings reports and bill comparison tools that make their energy use easy to understand.

Advancing Solar Energy

Elevate serves as the Program Administrator for Illinois Solar for All (ILSFA) on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency, an independent state government agency. Incentives are available for residential properties, facilities that house nonprofits and public agencies, and community solar projects serving customers with low incomes.

Water Programs

Identifying the causes of high water bills can be a difficult task for building owners and managers. Elevate helps address water-related issues that increase the cost of operating and maintaining affordable and healthy housing.

ComEd Hourly Pricing Program

Illinois was the first state in the country to launch a statewide residential Hourly Pricing program (also known as “peak time pricing”). This program offers ComEd customers a new way to pay for electricity, charging them a supply rate that can change on an hourly basis, instead of the standard price that typically changes only twice a year.

Hourly Pricing has saved participants an average of about 15 percent on the supply portion of their power bills, although savings aren’t guaranteed. An ongoing analysis of energy-usage data by CUB and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has found that most ComEd customers could save money under the program, with even better results for those willing and able to change how and when they use major appliances.

The program also helps reduce demand for expensive and pollution-causing power plants, and it can help prevent power outages by reducing stress on the electricity system during “peak” times when power usage and prices are at their highest.

ComEd Hourly Pricing Program

Illinois was the first state in the country to launch a statewide residential Hourly Pricing program (also known as “peak time pricing”). This program offers ComEd customers a new way to pay for electricity, charging them a supply rate that can change on an hourly basis, instead of the standard price that typically changes only twice a year.

Hourly Pricing has saved participants an average of about 15 percent on the supply portion of their power bills, although savings aren’t guaranteed. An ongoing analysis of energy-usage data by CUB and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has found that most ComEd customers could save money under the program, with even better results for those willing and able to change how and when they use major appliances.

The program also helps reduce demand for expensive and pollution-causing power plants, and it can help prevent power outages by reducing stress on the electricity system during “peak” times when power usage and prices are at their highest.

Chicago bungalow association energy savers program

ComEd® and Peoples Gas, in partnership with the Chicago Bungalow Association, provide customers with free home energy upgrades with CBA's Energy Savers. The free weatherization services and installation of free energy-saving products help increase comfort, lower utility bills, add value and extend the life of your home.

Services include air sealing in the attic, first floor exterior facing wall insulation, a clean and tune of a furnace or boiler, a high efficiency ventilation fan installed in your bathroom, weather stripping of your doors and possibly other health and safety components depending on what is needed at your specific house.